Thursday, September 06, 2012

So how is it going, these first few days of the new school year and of my inaugural week as a stay-at-home mom with kids in school all day? Well, I'm so exhausted that last night I went to bed at 8 p.m., before it was even dark outside, so I must be doing something wrong.

No, really--a few nights before school began, I spent 3-1/2 hours in the middle of the night wide awake and wracked with mama-anxiety insomnia over school starting, and never caught up on that sleep. Then, every night since, I've accidentally woken up ridiculously early (like, 4:30 a.m.), been kept awake by thunderstorms in the night, or both--and because this week is stressful and new, once I'm awake, I can't fall back to sleep. In other words, by the time my children go to bed at night, I'm ready for it myself.

Not that there is truly anything to lie awake and worry about. Things have gone fine so far. Julia isn't sure the third grade is going to be much fun, since so far it seems to be largely not that much fun, according to her; and Genevieve collapses in exhausted meltdowns each evening at about 6:30, but I take those things in stride. You can't possibly love everything about third grade in two days' time; and new first-graders always have meltdowns at home in the evenings, because they're so exhausted from holding it together and working hard for seven or more hours each day at school. This is all completely normal.

As for me, the days have gone by too quickly for me to be too lonely. On the first day of school, I didn't sit down for more than a half-hour all day; yesterday, not much more. It's not that I'm working too hard; it's more that I'm working like I always do: I'm doing all the things I've always done (minus the kids' activities, of course; no, I'm not sitting alone at the playground!), and guess what?--those things do not include sitting around. I'm cooking, baking, cleaning, doing laundry, running errands, etc., all of which keep me busy and on my feet. The new addition to my daytime schedule is exercise--a luxury, getting that done during the day--and that does not include sitting around, either.

Ah, but it's only day three. Life is still fresh and new. The weekend is coming, when I will take the girls to the apple orchard and make them popcorn while we watch a movie and let them play as long as they want in a bubble bath in "Mama's big tub," because Christopher will be busy with a bike race, and we'll need fun things to do. We will relax and celebrate the first week done. We will rest up. We will go to birthday parties and playdates. We will eat dinner outside in the still-warm weather.

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About Me

Hi! I'm Shannon Hyland-Tassava, or sometimes just Shannon Tassava. You can call me either one, but please pronounce it like this: TASS-uh-vuh. Accent on the first syllable. It's Finnish.

I'm a newly-turned full-time working mom (after 10 years of stay-at-home motherhood) to two young daughters; a writer; a psychologist; and a devoted trail runner. I live in a small southern-Minnesota college town amidst rolling fields and farmland. My life is filled with school-ager chapter books, Goldfish crackers, laundry, and love, but no longer with strollers and diapers, and never with enough sleep or hours in the day. I love sunshine, coffee, long walks, and all things coconut. I write about modern motherhood in all its chaos and glory.

My book, The Essential Stay-at-Home Mom Manual: How to Have a Wondrous Life Amidst Kids and Chaos, is available now. (See image below.)

I wrote a book! Click image to order.

The Essential Stay-at-Home Mom Manual: How to Have a Wondrous Life Amidst Kids & Chaos